$5,000 left

[Steevo]

I talked to the man today and I have about $5,000.00 left in the budget for new hardware. I know we need at least 2 new PC's. So there is about $1,900-2,100 depending on what I want to do. I also need-want a few upgrades to some PC's.

I recommended a server for all our databases, and for backups. Currently the only backups we have are those that I have copied to other PC's with the largest harddrives. And I have no main server, I have about 6Pc's that house different apps.

What I was thinking about was $2,200-2,500 for a RAIDed 0+1 server with a tape drive for the final backups. App 500 Gb of storage, and a Intel HT processor. Built by yours truly.

Anyone else??????

 

[ShepsCrook]

I would go with Xeons for a server, dual xeons. But that's my own thing.

 

[Steevo]

But the cost difference is huge, unless I'm wrong. But when the time comes I will price quite a few options, as these PC's-Server will need to last 4-5yr's

I doubt it will sustain more than 45Mbps. On a very good day.

 

[ShepsCrook]

Xeons aren't too bad. There was a deal for 2x Xeon (Pentium 4) 1.6ghrz chips for $119. Then you'd need a motherboard. And your hard drives. Which you could do a nice terabyte for dirt cheap now adays. I know Office Depot will be having their 250GB Maxtors for under $150 this coming week.

 

[gonaads]

I really didn't want to hear this.


I wish I had a $5k budget ta go and play mad scientist.

You suck!

 

[Jewelzz]

I could use a laptop and new PC

 

[sean.ferguson]

you should build an AMD64 server with SATA-Raid / 2Gb RAM / 500Gb Storage then run a nice Gentoo install over it

 

[Steevo]

Well, not to make anyone feel bad. But I started this year with $15,000 and have put in quite a few new PC's but the rest are still crap. New hubs, he got a new firewall+McCrappy anti-virus, I excluded my IP from teh auto download and put in AVG.

I know he went overbudget getting 4 new laptops, but he only took out $2,000 from my budget. And he is the boss, sooooo.

I showed him that we can take the laptops and connect through digital cell phones to the internet, but the internet part of the cell system isn't done here yet.

The next two that are being replaced are almost similar specs.

650Mhz PIII's or something like that
12-12Gb HDD's that are noisy. One now has it's second 40Gb, Pepsi machine and microwave has done em in.

 

[funky dredd]

Wow 5,000 isn't much when your talking servers. We just spent half a mill on 21 servers 2 workstations a powervault 136t and a CX500 SAN. We got a really good deal on the servers from Dell. Have you looked at them?

 

[sean.ferguson]

 

[funky dredd]

We are redoing our data center...

 

[Sazar]

why not consider opteron based systems?

they are excellent bang for the buck (ie 148/150... ) are a good balance... if yer going for a dual-cpu setup you can easily kit out a coupla 246's/248's...

throw in the rest of the optical drivers and you should be good to go...

Xeon's are not a bad option though...

 

[sean.ferguson]

We are redoing our data center...

oh well thats ok then

 

[xsivforce]

why not consider opteron based systems?

Opteron++++++

 

[Sazar]

Wow 5,000 isn't much when your talking servers. We just spent half a mill on 21 servers 2 workstations a powervault 136t and a CX500 SAN. We got a really good deal on the servers from Dell. Have you looked at them?

my brother works in the Dell server department working on system integrity for all the new stuff from Intel (ie dual-core nocona's and what not)



pretty decent performance for the price and service... afaik dell does not outsource its server tech support...

 

[funky dredd]

They do here. They come from Unisys...

 

[Steevo]

We don't quite have the same need you do Funky.

But having multiple databases, spread across 5 computers, and no way to back anything up to a reliable media, is just stupid.

One server with a coupla NIC's and tape or DVD backups will work fine for the next few years. I would get a DELL, but I prefer to build, and I backup what I sell with at least 2yr warranty. I can also walk people through any problems with our system over the phone.

Next year my budget is back down to $2,000 though, so I don't get to upgrade or do much else.

 

[funky dredd]

Understandable

 

[Sazar]

in that case why are you getting multiple hdd's for mirroring and striping?

will that not cost you more than say getting 2 ultra high capacity drives that are just mirrored?

 

[Steevo]

Speed, more speed. But I will probably just get a level 0 setup. Then use tape for backups.

I just installed one of our DB's on my PC here @ home. And the speed is tremendous!!!! it loads about 3X faster than any PC at work.And as I already have 2 NIC's so I might take it in over the long weekend to see what teh performance is like.